White Paper on Indian States (1950)/Part 4/Successful Conclusion of Negotiations

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White Paper on Indian States (1950)
Ministry of States, Government of India
Successful Conclusion of Negotiations
2591189White Paper on Indian States (1950) — Successful Conclusion of NegotiationsMinistry of States, Government of India

Successful Conclusion of Negotiations

79. When one looked back upon the barren course of the protracted infructuous negotiations in connection with the scheme embodied in the Act of 1935 it seemed an impossible task to finalise the accession of the States within a reasonable period, particularly when there was no sanction of paramountcy behind the negotiations. It is worth quoting the Sapru Committee in this connection:

"The experience of the negotiations which Lord Linlithgow inaugurated and conducted between 1936 and 1939 do not encourage the hope that these consultations and investigations can be successfully concluded except with the exercise of infinite patience and after the lapse of several years. To hang up the federal Union of such units as are willing to federate until some State, or a minimum number of States, or the last hesitant State has agreed to accede would be a policy which is calculated to postpone indefinitely the elimination of foreign rule and the achievement of full self-government."

80. The impending transfer of full power to a National Government having the will and the sanction of the Indian people behind it, the personal contact between the leaders of public opinion in India and the Rulers of States, rendered possible by the withdrawal of the Paramount Power's previous policy of political isolation of States and the patriotic lead given by some of the leading Princes enabled the Rulers of States to appreciate that it was both in the interest of Indian States and of the country that the States should become actively associated with the Dominion Government instead of holding a watching brief as it were in the deliberations of the Constituent Assembly. With their valuable assistance and co-operation and the helpful efforts of Lord Mountbatten, negotiations were concluded in a week's time and, barring Hyderabad, Kashmir and Junagadh, all the States in the geographical limits of India had acceded to the Indian Dominion by 15th August 1947.